Shadows
by Lorrean
Summary: A little snippet for Halloween of what could have happened after The Ultimate Enemy.


**A/N: I'm in a mood for a spooky Halloween one-shot. Takes place after The Ultimate Enemy.**

 **I don't know much on writing mentally deranged characters, so I'm giving it a shot.**

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 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Danny Phantom.**

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I don't know where to turn. I find myself curled into the fetal position, wide eyes staring into the shadows of my room. Despite it being scarcely decorated, the shadows seem more dominant… More threatening. An autumn wide jingles the window lightly and I am forced to remember that fall is approaching. The time for death and coldness is creeping through the trees. And let us not forget that one holiday where people get their sick thrills in scaring others is resonating in the air.

Halloween.

I find myself laughing weakly. I celebrated Halloween a bit early this year. People seek out to be haunted by others and in the end can just laugh it off with a joke. But not me, oh no, Phantom won't allow me such a denial.

The air conditioner kicks on, blowing shards of ice down on my neck. Curling deeper into my comforter, I try to prevent my body from shivering. My ears pick up a soft groan from somewhere, followed by the light drip of water. A creak makes me spring up from by my small position. Like a rabbit, I sit straight up in bed, listening, eyes darting from the sides. I don't care what Vlad said about false nightmares, my gut is telling me that I was fighting the real deal. That time in the medical room makes my body shiver controllable. The memory is still fresh in my mind and watching my evil self walk towards me with that blazing hand of his, feeling so helpless…so scared.

Fighting back a nauseous feeling, I slide off my bed, bare feet touching the unrelenting cold tile floor. Dragging the comforter with me, I wrap it around my body and trudge to the bathroom. I feel like a small child, waking up from a bad nightmare and sneaking into his parents' room for comfort. But I don't have that safety net anymore, no parents to wash away the fear.

Opening the mirror, I take out a small pill bottle. Lithium. It's becoming my drug, my way to escape the overwhelming depression caused by the guilt of my betrayal. I know I should be fighting it and I was. But tonight just showed me that I wasn't improving. I will never tell my friends what the phantom did to me while I was fighting him, the things he said and did to my soul. He's like a predator, sucking out my will to live. I twist the cap off and about to shake out my salvation when a warm presence warms my back. The bottle clatters to the ground, pills spilling out like candy from a bag.

My breath starts to hitch. My hands shiver no longer from cold but out-right fear, shaking the comforter from my grip. The bathroom light starts to flicker before bursting into one flash before dying to a dull. It's funny but in the dark I realize that my life would make a great horror film.

His breath tickles the hairs on the back of my neck. His boot lightly steps on the comforter that is splayed around me feet.

"Now, now, Danny. It's not healthy being in love with your guilt. It might lead one to a mental breakdown."

I want to retort, believe that it's just the nightmare again. But, somehow my gut is telling this is the real thing. That Phantom is not a ghost but a demon, his forked tongue searing into my soul, sending my mind shattering into out-right fright.

He whispers words of torture. With poetic imagery, he weaves into my mind images of my friends' deaths. I run through the halls, screaming at them to run away. Run away before the bad man finds them. I don't want him to get them, like how he got my parents. They try to calm me down, but they don't understand the urgency. They think it's just the nightmares, an early Halloween joke. I begin to physical force them to get away. If I distance myself from them, then maybe _he_ won't hurt them.

Yet, I'm too late. I'm always too late. Dan comes out of the shadows, his bloodlust eyes focusing on the redhead. Tiny spiders spring out of nowhere and begin to ravage her body. Her shrieks scorch my mind. Next, the guy with glasses, his body dragged into the depths of the earths by inhuman claws. A blast hits my back. Turning around, I watch as my best friend is flown up into the air by some monster, forever gone. Eyes, that had long lost their will to cry, focus on a woman that I have grown to care for. With not much of a blink, I watch as her body wrenches over in pain, tears streaming down her pale cheeks before her body disappears in a blinding burst of light.

Magically before me, the bottle of pills appears before me. They can take away me away from this nightmare. I want that numbing feeling back. I don't want to be scared anymore. I don't want the nightmares. I don't want to celebrate death or dress up in costumes of other heroes or villains. I just want to be me, a small little boy still afraid of the dark, of the things that go bump in the night.

I take a step forward and soon a volley of shadows spring forth, drawing back to where He stands, the Master of Darkness. I struggle, trying to wrench myself free from the bonds. My hands reach for the bottle, but it gets farther and farther away. A scream tears from my throat as the bottle disappears entirely and a shadowed arm encompasses all that I see.

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A scream echoes down the pale-lit hall. Vlad Masters watches with pain-filled eyes as the boy scampers into the corner of his small room. Wild blue eyes dart back and forth as if searching for something. Finally, they settle on his form and a rare spark of concern shimmers.

"You have to get out! He'll see you! He'll hurt you. I can't…the things…no…I don't want to watch…stop it…no…" Shaking his head back and forth, Daniel looks down at Vlad's feet. "Where is it? Where is it? I want it…please…I need it!"

The boy's heart-wrenched pleas splinter Vlad's heart even more. His friends and family had wanted to visit the teen but the last time they met, Daniel had attacked them with a wild, unrestrained violence. Even now, the doctors didn't permit Vlad to enter the cell. He could only look on through the plexi-glass custom to the asylum as Daniel crawled to the window, his arms tied around him in a straightjacket.

Despaired blue eyes met lost crystal blue. Vlad knew that look, he had seen in one to many faces. Daniel was being haunted. His sister said that it was this odd hallucination that made him see the Phantom. They had thought Danny was cured, that he was okay. But, they were wrong. It seemed that the nightmare was only the last nail in the coffin before Daniel finally shattered. Vlad couldn't help but think that maybe one day he would end up in the same position.

Kneeling down, he placed a Snickers Bar inside the food tray bin. Closing it, he watched as the younger halfa viewed the chocolate bar as if it was some foreign object.

"Happy Halloween, my little badger." Getting up, Vlad forced himself to make his way back to the outside world. He knew that Daniel never liked Halloween. That every year after he got his ghost powers, the boy no longer saw the point of trying to scare other people or dressing up. But, he hoped that maybe these little visits would make the boy break free from the insanity that plagued his mind.

Glancing once more down at the cell, he watched Daniel throw the chocolate bar against the window, screaming, before once more trying to pry himself free from the jacket in order to hurt himself – something his friends told that Daniel did when he imaged his future self attacking him. Doctors streamed to Daniel's cell, ready to calm the boy down before he injured himself. Vlad closed his eyes to prevent the tears from falling. He knew now why Daniel never liked Halloween.

Why pretend that ghosts, goblins and demons only come out once a year to haunt and scare you, when in reality they do it every waking second?

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 **A/N: Honestly, I prefer receiving** _ **Hersheys**_ **.**

 **Happy Halloween, guys! Treat me with your thoughtful reviews, if you do so mind!**


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